Romanian Wooden Churches Wall Painting Biodeterioration

Livia Bucşa1 and Corneliu Bucşa2

1
Department of History and Heritage, University „Lucian Blaga” of Sibiu, Romania
2
Department of Science, University „Lucian Blaga” of Sibiu, Romania

Abstract
The Romanian wooden churches are a category of monuments which belong to the great family of European wood
architecture. The inside decoration based on tempera painting technique is the most vulnerable part of these
monuments. Based on the biological examination for a number of over 300 wooden churches, the paper presents the
causes of the decay for this artistic component. The most extended and irreversible decays are the infiltrations of rain
water, followed by biological attacks produced by fungi and insects. The most important species of fungi and insects
are presented, their localization and peculiarity of attacks. We have concluded with some results and proposals to
prevent this kind of decay.

1. INTRODUCTION
Wooden churches are a category of monuments widely spread all over the space inhabited by the
Romanians [5]. They are to be found in great numbers not only in Maramureş, but also in Transsylvania,
Moldova, Muntenia, Oltenia, Banat and Crişana (figure nr.1 and 2).
Being considered a specific achievement, they belong to the great family of European wood architecture
[5]. Out of the 1250 wooden churches declared historical monuments, 8 are included in the UNESCO
Patrimony (Surdeşti, Plopiş, Bârsana, Budeşti, Deseşti, Rogoz, Ieud Deal, Poienele Izei).

(a) (b)
Figure nr.1 Wooden churches: (a) abandoned; (b) restored

The inside decoration with these churches was based on the tempera painting technique, taken over from
the Byzantine space and perpetuated up to the present day. The painted scenes entirely cover the walls, the
vaults and the ceilings of the narthex, nave and altar (figure nr.2 and 3).
The support of the painting, at the wall level, is made of the surfaces of the wooden beams, between which
strips of interstitial canvas was stuck with animal or vegetal glues.
The vaults can be made of beams or planks, between which the strips of canvas were applied.

1
Calcium carbonate and glue were used to make the start of preparation.
The pigments, based on mineral oxides, were applied over the ground by means of organic binders,
especially egg.

Figure nr.2 and 3 Painted vaults

2. SUBMISSION
After 1994, I was involved in several national and international projects, whose purpose was the wooden
churches restoration. Thus, I had the opportunity of analysing and elaborating the biological examinations
for a number of over 300 wooden churches from different geographical areas of Romania.
According to my experience, I understood that the most vulnerable part of these monuments is their
painting. We might replace without much difficulty the roofs, the beems, or even entire walls, but we
could not replace a lost painting.
Whatever we can do is to evaluate the reasons of the decays and to try to prevent them.
Among the causes that produce the most extended and irreversible decays, infiltrations of rain water,
followed by biological attacks rank first.
The clapboards are the constituent parts whose degradation takes the shortest time and if they are not
replaced in good time (35-40 years) [1], infiltrations of rain waters will wash away a good part of the
inside paintings or leave dirt stains difficult to remove. At the same time, moist wood is attacked by
biological factors (micro-organisms, fungi and wood-boring insects).
In the first stage, the interstitial canvases are affected by infiltrations of rain water and their moisture leads
to the appearance of micro-organisms attacks (bacteria and moulds), followed be the textile fibre roting.
There were quite rare cases in which I came across the period during which the microfungi produce
colonies that are visible without effort. An eloquent example in this aspect is the Wooden Church of
Spălnaca/county of Alba, where white colonies, having a diameter of 20 to 50mm developed abundantly
on the painting at the level of interstitial canvas.
With laboratory colonies, out of the drawn samples, four species of microfungi have been identified,
belonging to Rhyzopus, Penicillium and Aspergillus genuses (figure nr.4 and 5).

2
 Figure nr.4 and 5 Microfungi identified in laboratory, out of the drawn samples

The restriction of the decay to the canvas only indicates the preference of these species for the glue used to
stick them.
The effect of the decay on the canvas which gets rot very rapidly was also noticed.
The cause of the massive decay is the infiltrations of rain waters through the degraded wrapping, which
led to the rapid growth of the humidity of the support.
When the wood stays wet for a long time, the xylophagous macrofungi will develop.
The attacks produced by macrofungi are not visible in their first stage, but when the fruit bodies appear,
the timber has already lost part of its mechanic strength. Their evolution is fast and will lead, in a few
years, to collapse.
On the level of painted elements, I have identified 15 species of macrofungi, among which the most
frequent are: Coniophora puteana, Fibroporia vaillanti, Phellinus cryptarum, Phellinus contiguus,
Dacrymyces stillatus, Hyphodontia breviseta, Fomitopsis rosea, Gloeophyllum abietinum, Gloeophyllum
sepiarium, Schizopora paradoxa, Grandinia arguta, Hyphoderma puberum, Vesiculomyces citrinus [2]
Coniophora puteana has the highest occurrence both on resin wood and on sapwood on the studied
monuments [2]. The fruiting bodies are spread on the surface of the painting, attached tightly and are
especially frequent with vaults. The decayed wood is degraded in its depth, under the form of prismatic
brown rot (figure nr.6).

Figure nr.6 Vault decayed be the Coniophora puteana and other fungi

3
Phellinus cryptarum is frequent and specific of oak and it was recorded by us for the first time in Romania
[4].The fruiting bodies are quite widely spread, adherent to the support and the painting beneath them is
no longer recoverable. The decayed wood is degraded in its depth, as white rot.
Phellinus contiguus is specific of resin woods. The fruiting bodies are widely spread, adherent to the
support and the painting beneath them is no longer recoverable. The decayed wood is degraded in its
depth, as white rot.
Gloeophyllum abietinum and Gloeophyllum sepiarium and Fomitopsis rosea were noticed in but few
cases, with churches having already reached a high level of degradation. They are specific of resin wood.
Hyphoderma puberum, Hyphodontia breviseta and Grandinia arguta occur with wood already degraded
by the above mentioned species, when the mechanic resistance of the support is almost entirely lost.
The next stage in wood decay is that of the occurrence of the mixofungi of the Stemonitis and Arcyria
type, which contribute to its turning to clay.
There are successions of the fungi species and the combined attacks of fungi and wood-boring insects
which at the same time indicate the state of the timber [3].
The attack of insects depends on the wood essence, the percentage of sapwood, its position in the trunk,
the moisture content, previous or simultaneous fungi attacks, the contribution of organic substances from
glues or bird excreta. With the same wall, an elm or sycamore maple element will be strongly attacked at
its heartwood level, as compared to one of oak wood that does not present any attack, except for possibly
in its sapwood zone.
It is common knowledge that the attacks of Anobium punctatum are more intense on the peripheral areas
of the wood, but we can often notice them under the interstitial canvases that were glued or in areas with
infiltrations that brought organic substances (figure nr.7).

(b)

(a)
Figure nr.7 Anobium punctatum atacks: (a) areas with infiltrations; (b) under interstitial canvases

With higher intensity attacks (which we appreciate by the number of holes of flight per 100 cm²), the
wood becomes fragile, brittle or breakable.
With some churches we came across nave vaults made of beech wood (Fagus sylvatica), which had been
massively decayed by Ptilinus pectinicornis and the fragile wood easily broke under mechanic pressure.
Xestobium rufovillosum can only affect the sapwood areas of oak wood but when in combination with
fungi decay, it can extend to the heartwood, too. With beams component of vaults and those inside the

4
walls, where infiltrations of water were of long duration, we came across combined attacks of fungi and
insects, which compromised the wood in its depth [3]
In the case of combined attacks of Anobidae and fungi, the wood becomes spongy and extremely fragile.
Consolidation by means of injection with Paraloid B 72 or other products is not enough to give back its
mechanic resistance, especially in the case of planks or vault beams.
Hylotrupes bajulus, specific of resin wood, can only attack sapwood. The larvae make wide galleries,
parallel to the surface of the wood, which gives in easily and comes off together with the painting strata.
Those degradations occur especially with the side walls of the nave.
In the case of wooden churches, the parts of the building most vulnerable to biodegradation are the
ceilings and the vaults. By their position, they are directly exposed to infiltrations of rain waters, the
moment when the cover are degraded. The upper part of the vaults, the beams at their basis and the arches
sustaining them are the components where water from infiltrations can stagnate. At these levels, the first
fungi attacks occur and decays progress rapidly. The arches and the planks come off or break, the beams
subside and the vault collapses (figure nr.8)

Figure nr.8 Vault in collapses

3. CONCLUSIONS

We study the biologic agents, but they are not the main cause of the loss of these values. The most
important factor of degradation is human negligence.
Where communities have built new brick churches, the old wooden ones were abandoned. The priests are
not aware of the value of the latter and, unfortunately, they are the first to leave them. The communities
treat them as old people having reached the age of death.
In this case, the solutions we must look for are not the chemical ones (fungicides or insecticides), but the
change of people’s mentalities.

5
The funds allotted by the Ministry of Culture for the restoration of wooden churches, quite a lot in the
recent 18 years, cannot cope with the rhythm of degradations.
A former student of ours, graduate of Theology Studies and then Conservation Studies, wrote his diploma
paper on a group of wooden churches. I succeeded in making him aware of the value of these monuments
and talking him into the ways by which we could act so as to have an influence on the local community.
The spur we have given has developed and has now turned into a project for 80 churches in the Gorj area,
and succeeded in involving the County Inspectorate for Culture and the Mitropolitan Church of Craiova,
in gathering and instructing the local priests, in editing a photo album, organizing a conference and
initiating a project of cataloguing and monitoring.
These modest attempts can give us a hope that positive examples will have a chance to increase and we
will be able to rescue most of these monuments, which, at present, are part of a lost patrimony in most
European countries.
In the new context of getting financial support for the cultural projects and through the possibility of
accessing the European Structural Funds, we hope to succeed in restoring a greater number of the wooden
churches which are historical monuments. Consequently, we are considering the following measures to
take:
1.The setting of standards (norms) for settling a deadline within which the replacement of the roof
clapboards is obligatory and the type of roof which can be manufactured.
2.The introduction of supplementary restoration norms, concerning the painting protection
measures, during the restoration intercessions on the building.
3.The design of an insulation system of the vaults for the churches in function, in order to reduce
warmth loss, but to prevent condense and to offer an additional, long term protection of the vaults and side
walls paintings. We would like to prevent in this way improvised solutions made by parishioners that
could produce condense or maintain moisture and the appearance of biological attacks.
4.Making the priests aware and through them the flock of the value of these monuments, which could
become touristic assets.

References
1. Auner, N., Bucşa, L., Bucşa, C., Ciocşan, O., (2005): Tehnologia consolidării, restaurării şi
protecţia împotriva biodegradării la structurile de lemn ale monumentelor istorice. Ed. Alma
Mater, Sibiu.
2. Bucşa, L., Bucşa, C., (2005): Agenţi de biodegradare la monumente istorice din România.
Prevenire şi combatere. Ed. Alma Mater, Sibiu.
3. Bucşa, L., Bucşa, C., Zeleniuc O., (2005): Ocurenţa principalelor coleoptere xilofage la
monumentele istorice din România, Acta oecologica, vol.XI, 1-2, Sibiu, 2004 .
4. Bucşa, L., (2005), Phellinus cryptarum Karst, a new species in Romania s fungic flora, Rev.
Sănătatea plantelor, Special edition, Bucureşti, ISSN: 1453 – 9330
5. Porumb, M., (2005): Biserici de lemn din Maramureş, Ed. Academiei Române.